Attempt vs Start - What's the difference?
attempt | start |
To try.
* Longfellow
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=
, title= (obsolete) To try to move, by entreaty, by afflictions, or by temptations; to tempt.
* Thackeray
(archaic) To try to win, subdue, or overcome.
* Shakespeare
(archaic) To attack; to make an effort or attack upon; to try to take by force.
* Motley
The action of trying at something.
* We made an attempt to cross the stream, but didn't manage.
* This poem is much better than the feeble attempt of mine.
* It was worth the attempt .
* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03
, author=William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter
, title=The British Longitude Act Reconsidered
, volume=100, issue=2, page=87
, magazine=
An assault or attack, especially an assassination attempt.
* 1584' ''No man can charge us of any '''attempt against the realm. (Allen's Defence Of English Catholics, cited after Edinburgh review 1883, p. 378)
The beginning of an activity.
* Shakespeare
A sudden involuntary movement.
* L'Estrange
* Robert Louis Stevenson, Olalla
The beginning point of a race, a board game, etc.
An appearance in a sports game from the beginning of the match.
* {{quote-news
, year=2011
, date=February 12
, author=Ian Hughes
, title=Arsenal 2 - 0 Wolverhampton\
, work=BBC
A young plant germinated]] in a pot to be [[transplant, transplanted later.
(label) To begin, commence, initiate.
# To set in motion.
#* (Joseph Addison) (1672-1719)
#* , chapter=22
, title= # To begin.
#* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author=(Peter Wilby)
, volume=189, issue=6, page=30, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= # (senseid)To initiate operation of a vehicle or machine.
# To put or raise (a question, an objection); to put forward (a subject for discussion).
# To bring onto being or into view; to originate; to invent.
#* Sir (1628–1699)
To begin an activity.
* , chapter=1
, title= To startle or be startled; to move or be moved suddenly.
# To jerk suddenly in surprise.
#* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
#* (John Dryden) (1631-1700)
#* (Isaac Watts) (1674-1748)
# To move suddenly from its place or position; to displace or loosen; to dislocate.
#* Wiseman
# To awaken suddenly.
#* (rfdate) (Mary Shelley)
# To disturb and cause to move suddenly; to startle; to alarm; to rouse; to cause to flee or fly.
#* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
To break away, to come loose.
* 1749 , (John Cleland), (w) (Penguin 1985 reprint), page 66:
(nautical) To pour out; to empty; to tap and begin drawing from.
A tail, or anything projecting like a tail.
A handle, especially that of a plough.
The curved or inclined front and bottom of a water wheel bucket.
The arm, or level, of a gin, drawn around by a horse.
(Webster 1913)
As a verb attempt
is to try.As a noun attempt
is the action of trying at something.As an acronym start is
(law).attempt
English
Verb
(en verb)- I attempted to sing, but my throat was too hoarse.
- to attempt an escape from prison
- Something attempted , something done, / Has earned a night's repose.
Sarah Glaz
Ode to Prime Numbers, volume=101, issue=4, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Some poems, echoing the purpose of early poetic treatises on scientific principles, attempt to elucidate the mathematical concepts that underlie prime numbers. Others play with primes’ cultural associations. Still others derive their structure from mathematical patterns involving primes.}}
- It made the laughter of an afternoon / That Vivien should attempt the blameless king.
- one who attempts the virtue of a woman
- Dear sir, of force I must attempt you further: / Take some remembrance of us, as a tribute.
- to attempt the enemy's camp
- without attempting his adversary's life
Usage notes
* This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive . SeeSynonyms
* take a stab at, take a run atNoun
(en noun)citation, passage=But was it responsible governance to pass the Longitude Act without other efforts to protect British seamen? Or might it have been subterfuge—a disingenuous attempt to shift attention away from the realities of their life at sea}}
Usage notes
* Adjectives often applied to "attempt": first, failed, desperate, last, half-hearted, unsuccessful, serious, successful, feeble, new, honest, vain, sincere, ambitious, earnest, clumsy, direct, hard, brilliant, official, useless, clever, sophisticated, amateurish.Synonyms
* effort * tryStatistics
*External links
* * * English control verbsstart
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) stert, from the verb . See below.Noun
(en noun)- The movie was entertaining from start to finish.
- I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, / Straining upon the start .
- He woke with a start .
- Nature does nothing by starts and leaps, or in a hurry.
- The sight of his scared face, his starts and pallors and sudden harkenings, unstrung me
- Jones has been a substitute before, but made his first start for the team last Sunday.
citation, page= , passage=Wilshere, who made his first start for England in the midweek friendly win over Denmark, raced into the penalty area and chose to cross rather than shoot - one of the very few poor selections he made in the match. }}
Etymology 2
From (etyl) . More at (l).Verb
(en verb)- I was engaged in conversation upon a subject which the people love to start in discourse.
The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=In the autumn there was a row at some cement works about the unskilled labour men. A union had just been started for them and all but a few joined. One of these blacklegs was laid for by a picket and knocked out of time.}}
Finland spreads word on schools, passage=Imagine a country where children do nothing but play until they start compulsory schooling at age seven. Then, without exception, they attend comprehensives until the age of 16. Charging school fees is illegal, and so is sorting pupils into ability groups by streaming or setting.}}
- Sensual men agree in the pursuit of every pleasure they can start .
Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’
- But if he start , / It is the flesh of a corrupted heart.
- I start as from some dreadful dream.
- Keep your soul to the work when ready to start aside.
- One, by a fall in wrestling, started the end of the clavicle from the sternum.
- I started from my sleep with horror
- Upon malicious bravery dost thou come / To start my quiet?
- we could, with the greatest ease as well as clearness, see all objects (ourselves unseen) only by applying our eyes close to the crevice, where the moulding of a panel had warped or started a little on the other side.